Azrael is the only one who ain't an idiot it seems. Neurotypicals seriously need to learn how to chain thoughts. Removing stages and increase the costs is a good way, and you would also need to remove idle gain of credits/evo to make it playable.
Stages do have some good points. When you gain a new stage, the whole team gains power, which means its easier for a comeback. But, IMO, that's just a waste of time. A better team will win most likely anyways, and even a comeback at the best opportunity probably won't gain the other team a victory.
My way, removing stages that is, gives more emphasis on the players themselves. What that means is that just like in other games, a good player is a good player, no matter what the team does. Like in Quake 3 CTF, a good player can singlehandedly win all the time. While it's unlikely, it happens.
I guess most would consider that bad, well, I do too in a way. But going with a team direction, you will be dragged down to the others level. Do I think it's fun that my team loses just because we got a few feeders, even when we got the otherwise best players? Obviously not.
Then you can ask why I just don't play with people on my own level. I would, and do if possible. Though you can't blame possibility on a game really, the game shouldn't be created to discourage it, as it limits the game too much.
So to have a team with about 7/10 in skill (i.e: 70% teams are worse, and 30% teams are better), the whole team need to be around that level. A player at 8/10 would limit his potential, and a player with 6/10 is just dragging it all down too much.
What happens is: You end up playing with the same people all the time, because you ain't accepted anywhere else.
Without so much emphasis on teams, players could prove their own worth, independent of the team. While if a team had 1/10 value players, they would be totally worthless really. But a single person with 10/10 could easily bring the whole teams value up to 4/10 or so. Just because he's skilled.
I wonder what the developers want. Like it is right now, or how it is in other games, like Counter-Strike, where a good player can singlehandedly lead a team to victory.
I prefer the latter. I want to play with my friends and such, even if we're all at different skill levels. Then I can do my best, and they can do their best. If we win, it depends on the players, not on the team itself. While the teamplay certainly has its aspect as well in the win, it's much less emphasized.
I believe stages just puts a barrier for everyone.
[Slightly less opinionized, and more likely a better read: This isn't something that needs to be prioritized. The endless camping, dragging games to an obscene amount of time even if there is a clear winner etc... that needs to be resolved first.]
*Haven't spellchecked, and I don't care to do it either. Blame yourself if you don't understand something*
